Nepal Prime Minister (PM) Balendra Shah is preparing to visit India towards November, nearly eight months after taking office in March, and this would be his maiden bilateral foreign trip as PM. There are reports that two governments have already swapped lists of projects to inaugurate and agreements to sign.
There are serious issues to raise with the Indian counterparts: The boundary, air routes for Nepal through India, and the trade imbalance. The visit is worth making, but it will be worth remembering only if it moves those three issues.
Geographically landlocked, Nepal remains fundamentally bound to India, through which the vast majority of its trade, fuel imports, and future revenues must flow. Among the critical infrastructure projects slated to break ground, a new petroleum pipeline from Siliguri to Jhapa carries the most immediate promise for ordinary citizens; fuel transported via pipeline bypasses the volatile logistics of tanker trucks and the perennial threat of blocked border roads. Yet the true engine of long-term economic sovereignty lies in Nepal's unharnessed rivers. India's state-owned NHPC has heavily invested in mega-projects like West Seti (750MW), Phukot Karnali (480MW), and Seti River-6 (450MW). This shows that Nepal possesses the liquid assets, New Delhi needs power and no other regional partner can enter that equation.
Reports indicate that the most of bilateral mechanisms between New Delhi and Kathmandu have yielded tangible monuments to cooperation like the Nepal Police Academy in Panauti and the critical bridges over the Mahakali River in Darchula. Yet, while technocratic committees can successfully engineer a bridge, they lack the mandate to redraw a contested border or fundamentally restructure the terms of trade. Such structural shifts require political will, the kind forged only when PMs execute decisions. A brief three-day State visit offers a rare window for this high-level arbitrage; Kathmandu must seize the moment to advance these deeper structural demands, and New Delhi must be prepared to accommodate them.
{{/usCountry}}Reports indicate that the most of bilateral mechanisms between New Delhi and Kathmandu have yielded tangible monuments to cooperation like the Nepal Police Academy in Panauti and the critical bridges over the Mahakali River in Darchula. Yet, while technocratic committees can successfully engineer a bridge, they lack the mandate to redraw a contested border or fundamentally restructure the terms of trade. Such structural shifts require political will, the kind forged only when PMs execute decisions. A brief three-day State visit offers a rare window for this high-level arbitrage; Kathmandu must seize the moment to advance these deeper structural demands, and New Delhi must be prepared to accommodate them.
{{/usCountry}}Delhi has its own reason to listen. India's pitch to its neighbours is that it delivers: Roads, pipelines, power. The project list suggests that, in Nepal at least, it often does. Nepal buys far more from India than it sells back. It wants better access to air routes through Indian airspace. These are matters for negotiation, and they can be settled at modest cost to both sides. Settle them, and the issues become easier to raise. India also gains. A Nepal that earns more from its exports and its rivers is a steadier neighbour on an open border.
His upcoming visit to New Delhi will serve as a crucial test of whether this diplomatic approach can yield concrete agreements on infrastructure, reconstruction, and the structural disputes that have long hampered bilateral relations. While breakthroughs on the first two fronts remain comfortably within reach, it is the third by which the success of the entire visit will be measured. Resolving long-standing boundary disputes, securing vital entry routes through Indian airspace, and correcting a trade imbalance that skews in India's favor are not tasks that can be delegated to bureaucratic working groups; they demand a PM willing to articulate them and a counterpart ready to listen constructively. New Delhi has a profound self-interest in doing so: An economically resilient Nepal that derives robust revenues from its own exports and unharnessed rivers makes for a far more stable neighbour along an open border.
(The views expressed are personal)
This article is authored by Brabim Karki, columnist and commentator, Nepal.